Diabetes mellitus is a serious disease afflicting over 100 million people worldwide. In the United States, there are more than 12 million diabetics, with 600,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
Diabetes mellitus is a diagnostic term for a group of disorders characterized by abnormal glucose homeostasis resulting in elevated blood sugar. There are many types of diabetes, but the two most common are Type I (also referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or IDDM) and Type II (also referred to as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or NIDDM).
The etiology of the different types of diabetes is not the same; however, everyone with diabetes has two things in common: overproduction of glucose by the liver and little or no ability to move glucose out of the blood into the cells where it becomes the body's primary fuel.
People who do not have diabetes rely on insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas, to move glucose from the blood into the cells of the body. However, people who have diabetes either don't produce insulin or can't efficiently use the insulin they produce; therefore, they can't move glucose into their cells. Glucose accumulates in the blood creating a condition called hyperglycemia, and over time, can cause serious health problems.
Diabetes is a syndrome with interrelated metabolic, vascular, and neuropathic components. The metabolic syndrome, generally characterized by hyperglycemia, comprises alterations in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism caused by absent or markedly reduced insulin secretion and/or ineffective insulin action. The vascular syndrome consists of abnormalities in the blood vessels leading to cardiovascular, retinal and renal complications. Abnormalities in the peripheral and autonomic nervous systems are also part of the diabetic syndrome.
About 5% to 10% of the people who have diabetes have IDDM. These individuals don't produce insulin and therefore must inject insulin to keep their blood glucose levels normal. IDDM is characterized by low or undetectable levels of endogenous insulin production caused by destruction of the insulin-producing 13 cells of the pancreas, the characteristic that most readily distinguishes IDDM from NIDDM. IDDM, once termed juvenile-onset diabetes, strikes young and older adults alike.
Approximately 90 to 95% of people with diabetes have Type II (or NIDDM). NIDDM subjects produce insulin, but the cells in their bodies are insulin resistant: the cells don't respond properly to the hormone, so glucose accumulates in their blood. NIDDM is characterized by a relative disparity between endogenous insulin production and insulin requirements, leading to elevated blood glucose levels. In contrast to IDDM, there is always some endogenous insulin production in NIDDM; many NIDDM patients have normal or even elevated blood insulin levels, while other NIDDM patients have inadequate insulin production (Rotwein, R. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 308, 65-71 (1983)). Most people diagnosed with NIDDM are age 30 or older, and half of all new cases are age 55 and older. Compared with whites and Asians, NIDDM is more common among Native Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, and Hispanics. In addition, the onset can be insidious or even clinically non-apparent, making diagnosis difficult.
The primary pathogenic lesion on NIDDM has remained elusive. Many have suggested that primary insulin resistance of the peripheral tissues is the initial event. Genetic epidemiological studies have supported this view. Similarly, insulin secretion abnormalities have been argued as the primary defect in NIDDM. It is likely that both phenomena are important contributors to the disease process (Rimoin, D. L., et. al. Emery and Rimoin's Principles and Practice of Medical Genetics 3rd Ed. 1:1401-1402 (1996)).
Many people with NIDDM have sedentary lifestyles and are obese; they weigh approximately 20% more than the recommended weight for their height and build. Furthermore, obesity is characterized by hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance, a feature shared with NIDDM, hypertension and atherosclerosis.
Obesity and diabetes are among the most common human health problems in industrialized societies. In industrialized countries, a third of the population is at least 20% overweight. In the United States, the percentage of obese people has increased from 25% at the end of the 1970s, to 33% at the beginning the 1990s. Obesity is one of the most important risk factors for NIDDM. Definitions of obesity differ, but in general, a subject weighing at least 20% more than the recommended weight for his/her height and build is considered obese. The risk of developing NIDDM is tripled in subjects 30% overweight, and three-quarters with NIDDM are overweight.
Obesity, which is the result of an imbalance between caloric intake and energy expenditure, is highly correlated with insulin resistance and diabetes in experimental animals and human. However, the molecular mechanisms that are involved in obesity-diabetes syndromes are not clear. During early development of obesity, increase insulin secretion balances insulin resistance and protects patients from hyperglycemia (Le Stunff, et al. Diabetes 43, 696-702 (1989)). However, after several decades, β cell function deteriorates and non-insulin-dependent diabetes develops in about 20% of the obese population (Pederson, P. Diab. Metab. Rev. 5, 505-509 (1989)) and (Brancati, F. L., et al., Arch. Intern. Med. 159, 957-963 (1999)). Given its high prevalence in modern societies, obesity has thus become the leading risk factor for NIDDM (Hill, J. O., et al., Science 280, 1371-1374 (1998)). The present invention is directed to G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) agonists. In particular, the present invention is directed to agonists of GPR 119 that are useful for the treatment of obesity, e.g. as regulators of satiety, and for the treatment of diabetes.
Obesity is characterized by an excessive adipose tissue mass relative to body size. Clinically, body fat mass is estimated by the body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)2), or waist circumference. Individuals are considered obese when the BMI is greater than 30 and there are established medical consequences of being overweight. It has been an accepted medical view for some time that an increased body weight, especially as a result of abdominal body fat, is associated with an increased risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and numerous other health complications, such as arthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, muscular and respiratory problems, back pain and even certain cancers. However, the factors which predispose a fraction of patients to alteration of insulin secretion in response to fat accumulation remain unknown.
Pharmacological approaches to the treatment of obesity have been mainly concerned with reducing fat mass by altering the balance between energy intake and expenditure. Many studies have clearly established the link between adiposity and the brain circuitry involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis. Direct and indirect evidence suggest that serotonergic, dopaminergic, adrenergic, cholinergic, endocannabinoid, opioid, and histaminergic pathways in addition to many neuropeptide pathways (e.g. neuropeptide Y and melanocortins) are implicated in the central control of energy intake and expenditure. Hypothalamic centres are also able to sense peripheral hormones involved in the maintenance of body weight and degree of adiposity, such as insulin and leptin, and fat tissue derived peptides.
Drugs aimed at the pathophysiology associated with insulin dependent Type I diabetes and non-insulin dependent Type II diabetes have many potential side effects and do not adequately address the dyslipidaemia and hyperglycaemia in a high proportion of patients. Treatment is often focused at individual patient needs using diet, exercise, hypoglycaemic agents and insulin, but there is a continuing need for novel antidiabetic agents, particularly ones that may be better tolerated with fewer adverse effects.
Similarly, metabolic syndrome (syndrome X) which is characterized by hypertension and its associated pathologies including atherosclerosis, lipidemia, hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia have been associated with decreased insulin sensitivity which can lead to abnormal blood sugar levels when challenged. Myocardial ischemia and microvascular disease is an established morbidity associated with untreated or poorly controlled metabolic syndrome.
There is a continuing need for novel antiobesity and antidiabetic agents, particularly ones that are well tolerated with few adverse effects.
The present invention is directed to G-protein coupled receptor agonists of GPR 119 that are useful for the treatment of obesity, e.g. as regulators of satiety, and for the treatment of diabetes. GPR 119 is a GPCR identified as SNORF25 in WO00/50562 which discloses both the human and rat receptors, U.S. Pat. No. 6,468,756 also discloses the mouse receptor (accession numbers: AAN95194 (human), AAN95195 (rat) and ANN95196 (mouse)).
In humans, GPR 119 is expressed in the pancreas, small intestine, colon and adipose tissue. A Role of G Protein-Coupled Receptor 119 expressed in β-Cell- in glycemic control by enhancing glucose dependent insulin release was demonstrated by using an agonist of GPR-119 (Endocrinology 148(6):2601-2609). Further the anti obesity effects of GPR-119 agonist which suppress food intake in rats and reduce body weight gain and white adipose tissue deposition upon subchronic oral administration to high-fat-fed rats was also demonstrated (Cell Metabolism 3, 167-175). GPR119 therefore represents a novel and attractive potential target for the therapy of obesity and related metabolic disorders.
International (PCT) Publication Nos. WO2005/061489; 2007116230; 2007116229; 2007003964; 2007003962; 2007003961; and 2006070208 disclose heterocyclic derivatives as GPR 119 receptor agonists. However, the therapeutic potential of these compounds to treat diseases has not yet been proved and so there remains the need to develop newer medicines which are better or of comparable efficacy with the present treatment regimes, have lesser side effects and require a lower dosage regime.
We herein disclose novel compounds of Formula (I) useful as antidiabetic, antiobesity, hypolipidaemic, hypolipoproteinemic, and antihyperglycemic agents which may have additional body weight lowering effect and beneficial effect in the treatment and/or prophylaxis of diseases caused by hyperlipidaemia, diseases classified under Syndrome X and atherosclerosis, and methods for their preparation.